This invention relates to food products and processes for making food products having a brighter more white color. This invention is particularly useful for preparing frozen potato products such as french fry products.
French fried potatoes have long been popular as a convenience food, especially those that have been frozen. To enhance the appearance, texture, taste, and especially the holding time of such products, batter coatings have been applied to the potato.
Methods for preparing and applying batter coatings to the outer surfaces of potato products are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,227 to Murray et al. discloses a process in which raw potato strips are coated in a hot aqueous solution of modified amylose, with the coated strips containing from about 0.002 to 0.02 percent by weight of amylose. Prior to coating the potatoes, the amylose solution is heated until all the amylose has been gelatinized. This process is reported to produce a finished product which has superior strength and rigidity, yet is not objectionably tough. The finished product also purportedly has a reduced oil content.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,751,268 to Van Patten et al. discloses a coating of blanched potato pieces with 0.1 to 1.5 percent by weight of an ungelatinized unmodified high amylose starch having an amylose content of at least 50 percent. The coated potato strips are deep fat fried. Among other things, deep frying gelatinizes the starch in the coating. The finished product reportedly has less oil and improved texture.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,435 to Sloan et al. discloses yet another method of preparing batter coated and frozen potato products wherein the potatoes are coated with an aqueous starch slurry comprised of a modified ungelatinized potato starch, modified ungelatinized corn starch, rice flour, and other optional ingredients. The starch coating is reported to enhance the holding quality of the final product. It also purportedly improves the acceptability of the finished product by increasing the crispiness of the outer surface, and helps to maintain the tenderness of the interior of the cut potato.
In addition to batter coating, various methods have been proposed for preparing frozen potato products so that they have a pleasing appearance which has been generally identified by the industry as a light white to golden brown finished color. One such method for preparing potato pieces is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,030 to Haury et al. where, after the potato has been blanched, it is immersed in a combination of sodium acid pyrophosphate (SAPP) and caramel. This allows the pieces to develop a golden color through a combination of caramel coloring and caramelization of the sugar content.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,617 to Tiffany discloses a process where the potato pieces are passed through an aqueous solution of food grade color, i.e. annatto or yellow dye, which is said to provide the potato pieces with a light golden yellow color upon emerging from the color solution and is retained through the final preparation for consumption.
Although batter coatings and modified processes have done much to improve the appearance, increase the holding time of these potato products under a heat lamp, and produce crispier product textures and new tastes, the resulting products still tend to be darker in color than if no batter coating were applied at all. This is a major concern to food service clients that desire the holding time extension with crispier textures and new flavors, but do not want a darker brown colored product.
Compounding the problem of darker brown color resulting from batter coatings is that during the potato processing year and from one potato processing season to another, the inherent raw potato reducing sugar changes. The raw potato reducing sugars create a darker colored potato product when the potato is subjected to the elevated heat of parfrying and finish frying or baking. Leaching of these reducing sugars is required by processors through a process called water and/or steam blanching (cooking), causing the texture to become soft and less crisp.
Additionally, new batter coated frozen potato products on the market called "clear coats" by the industry are sought after because the coating is near invisible to the eye, but the heat lamp retention time is much longer than that of an uncoated fry. Because of inherent raw potato reducing sugar, processors have been known to specifically set aside bins of raw potato having very low reducing sugar in order to be able to manufacture these clear coat products and to have the desired light golden brown color in the finished potato product.
Nevertheless, there remains a need for an improved process for making these frozen coated products, especially clear coat potato products, that have a light golden brown color typical of the potato product when manufactured without the batter coating. Furthermore, there remains a need for an improved process for making these frozen batter coated potato products to have the same light golden brown color, regardless of fluctuation in inherent raw potato reducing sugar that occurs within a single potato processing year or from one potato processing year to the next.